Yelena Baturina and Tatyana Bakalchuk are household names in Russia’s billionaire circles.
Months after cementing their status as Russia’s only women billionaires, Baturina and Bakalchuk have once again topped Forbes magazine’s ranking of the country’s 25 richest women.
But while Baturina’s fortune stayed at $1.2 billion this year, Bakalchuk nearly doubled her net worth to $1 billion, according to the magazine’s barely changed ranking published Thursday.
Baturina, 56, headed a construction company until her husband Yury Luzhkov departed as mayor of Moscow in 2010, when she sold the company and moved abroad. She has since embarked on a number of development projects.
Bakalchuk, 43, who co-founded the popular private online retailer Wildberries in 2004, cracked the top 100 among both genders this year.
Tatyana Kovalchuk, the wife of President Vladimir Putin’s old friend Yury Kovalchuk and a newcomer to Forbes’ women’s list, placed in third with a $600 million fortune.
Elena Rybolovleva, who was reported to have acquired much of her wealth through her divorce from billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, also had a $600 million net worth. Olga Belantseva, the co-owner of the Progress baby food plant, ranked fifth with $550 million.
Tennis star Maria Sharapova rounded out the list of 25 richest Russian women with a net worth of $180 million.
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